INDIANA BOYS COACH OF THE YEAR

What about Mishawaka football coach Bart Curtis, whose Cavemen were Class 4-A state runners-up? Another good choice.

Don’t forget Triton basketball coach Jason Groves, who led the Trojans to a Class 1-A state runner-up finish.

But this year’s Tribune Boys Coach of the Year was actually a group effort. Five hearts beating as one, so to speak.

Clay baseball coach Chad Hudnall has been in a knock-down, drag-out rumble with cancer over the last couple years. All the while, his constant focus has been to maintain a fine tradition of Colonial baseball.

Physically, Hudnall has his good days and his bad ones. Cancer treatment has its own schedule, and often doesn’t play by any rules. Yet, Hudnall and his staff refused to yield.

“This season was a perfect example of the program being bigger than the people in it,” said assistant coach Dan Kasper, who has been a part of that program for 31 years now.

Kasper, Bill Schell (eight years), Hudnall’s brother D.D. (two years) and Justin Zobroski (two years) not only spent the season on the same page as their head coach, they were on the same chapter and verse.

“Baseball is my outlet,” said Hudnall, who was forced to miss two weeks late in the season because of the effects of the treatment. “It’s what I look forward to. It’s my time to go out with the guys.”

“They went through so many ups and downs this season,” said South Bend St. Joseph coach John Gumpf, who admired the job the Clay staff did. “As tough as Chad is, you know if he wasn’t there, he was hurtin’. They still kept getting better and had an amazing season.”

One thing the Clay skipper didn’t worry about when he couldn’t be in the dugout was how the team was being run.

“Nothing changed if I wasn’t there,” Hudnall said. “These (assistants) don’t take anything. We have the same expectations. We know what we want to accomplish.”

And they accomplished plenty this season.

On the way to winning 18 games, the Colonials captured the Class 4-A South Bend Sectional title and gave the eventual state champion Blue Blazers all they could handle before losing in 11 innings in the regional.

Clay’s tournament success was the culmination of a season defined by significant progress. A program saddled with preseason pitching questions evolved into a solid unit that bordered on elite.

“There was a point, late in the season, when it seemed that all of the players started caring,” said Zobroski, Clay’s pitching coach. “Something clicked. They all came together.”

“We played them early (in the season) and I was so grateful,” said Gumpf. “They got a lot better as the season went on.

“I tip my hat to everyone involved with that program. They all stuck together - coaches and players - for one person (Hudnall). They stayed together as a team, which is something we all try to teach.”

“This season meant so much to me,” Hudnall said. “It opened the kids’ eyes to what they could achieve. We gave the state champs the toughest game they had in the postseason. We battled Central, Penn and St. Joe all season. I think it’s obvious that (Northern Indiana Conference) baseball is pretty good.”

In his two years at the helm, Hudnall has been wise enough to change his approach to fit the athletes available.

“Last year, I tried to get too technical,” Hudnall said. “I was talking to (Clay boys basketball coach Joe Huppenthal), ‘We’re trying to teach these guys 150 (different plays), and a lot of them can’t remember their own address.’

“This year, our players just needed to know how to play hard; run when you’re in-between the lines. Just throw, catch and hit. We made the game mean something.”